Yesterday, I joined some people from Chaos Computer Club Zürich (CCCZH) to visit the Cybercrime Coordination Unit (KOBIK) in Bern. The background was a Freedom of Information Act based request by the CCCZH: KOBIK provides a list of domain names that host child pornography. It is seen as a voluntary DNS blacklist for ISPs (and all the large Swiss ISPs apply this list). Naturally, groups like the CCCZH are worried given the non-public and intransparent nature of this list, lack of independent monitoring, and its possible implications for future expansion to other areas. This is not a theoretical danger, given...

The former NSA official held his thumb and forefinger close together: “We are that far from a turnkey totalitarian state.“ The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) | Threat Level | Wired.com (View on gamamb.tumblr.com)

Subsequently, Google asked the Etherpad code maintainers to remove JSMin from its code tree due to a clause in its license stating, “The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil,” which is not compatible with the open source licenses allowed on Google Code. Wikipedia: Etherpad (View on gamamb.tumblr.com)

I believe that the modern representative democracy is outdated as a political institution. I like to say that it’s the best form of government that the mid-18th century could produce. Think about it: because both travel and communications were hard, local groups had to pick one of their own to go all the way to the capital and help make laws in the group’s name. Now that travel and communications are easy, there’s probably a better system. Bruce Schneier in Liars & Outliers (p.282, 15) (View on gamamb.tumblr.com)